President's Reflection Column from ASHS Newsletter September 2006
On Being a Horticultural Scientist
William R. Woodson
I've been reflecting a great deal lately. There's nothing quite like
the pressure of writing a monthly column to stimulate the thought
process! These reflections have recently focused on what it means to
be a horticultural scientist, as this is the group ASHS seeks to
support.
The American Society for Horticultural Science was founded over 100
years ago by a group of leaders who felt that putting the science of
botany to practice was a worthy scientific pursuit. My colleague
Professor Jules Janick reminded me recently that the debates we
currently have about "basic" vs. "applied" science were just as real
in 1903 at the founding of ASHS as they are today. The first
President of ASHS, Liberty Hyde Bailey, commented on this issue in
his 1904 address to the membership in
Philadelphia. Professor Bailey
noted that "when I was asked to take the chair of horticulture at
the
Michigan Agricultural College, a prominent botanist said to me
that he did not see `how under heaven any man can take a
professorship in horticulture' ." Commenting further, our first
president said: "When I sought to minimize the disgrace of it by
saying that a horticulturist needs to be a botanist, my mentor
replied. `Yes, but he needs to be a horticulturist, too!'" As my
teenage daughter would say, we've been "dissed" from the beginning!
Allow me to again cite Liberty Hyde Bailey on this topic of what it
means to be a horticultural scientist. Dr. Bailey noted
that: "Botany has not been alone in holding itself aloof from
subjects that are made unclean by serving a direct purpose in the
lives on men. All academic subjects have considered themselves
worthy in proportion as they serve no concrete purpose. We even
speak of `pure science,' as if some sciences were impure. It is
curious that subjects sought by human minds and hands are not pure
when they serve those minds and hands in the affairs of life.
Howbeit, a working and practicable knowledge of plants must be had
by those who engage in the developing of plant industries. A few
days ago I saw a professor of botany in a commercial greenhouse,
asking the florist many questions about the growth and behavior of
plants. I asked him why. He replied, `Those men know more real plant
physiology than we do'. Those men were horticulturists. "
A Century of Discoveries
The century that followed Liberty Hyde Bailey's presidency was
associated with many great discoveries in botanical sciences, many
of which would not have been possible if it weren't for the careful
observations and experiments of horticultural scientists. A few
examples include the experiments conducted by Garner and Allard on
photoperiodism that were initiated in 1918. These critical
observations led to the concept of a reversible photoreaction in
plants (Borthwick et al., 1952) that we now know to be mediated by
phytochrome. Perhaps as important to agriculture is the early
application of this knowledge to the flowering of plants in
greenhouses following the manipulation of photoperiod (Post, 1934).
Much of modern biotechnology has its roots in discoveries in
horticulture. Early work on plant propagation and tissue culture led
the way for genetic modification of plants. Horticultural science
was at the center of the development of the gene gun, when John
Sanford blasted away at plant cells in his laboratory at the Cornell
University Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. (Klein et
al., 1987). This work was critical to the application of
biotechnology to the improvement of many crops, including maize and
rice.
Horticultural science and horticultural scientists have much to be
proud of. We've contributed to the discovery of new knowledge in
plant biology, but, more important, we've translated these
discoveries in to agricultural industries that contribute to the
wealth and well-being of humankind.
William R. Woodson
woodson@purdue. edu------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
References
H.A. Borthwick, S.B. Hendricks, M.W. Parker, E.H. Toole, and V.K.
Toole. 1952. A reversible photoreaction controlling seed
germination. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 38:662–666.
W.W. Garner and H.A. Allard. 1920. Effect of the relative length of
the day and night and other factors of the environment on growth and
reproduction in plants. J. Agr. Res. 18:553-606.
T.M. Klein, E.D. Wolf, R. Wu, and J.C. Sanford. 1987. High-velocity
micro-projectiles for delivering nucleic acids into living cells.
Nature 327:70–73.
K. Post. 1934. Production of early blooms of chrysanthemums by the
use of black cloth to reduce the length of the day. Cornell Univ.
Agr. Expt. Sta. Bul. 594
